Horrors of Halloween Countdown, Vol. 2

SCARY MOMENT: Carrie's about to get teased.

By Ryan Pence

October 17, 2006 | Halloween is creeping up on us, and if we are not careful it will pass us by without warning. What good would that do us?

Not a lot. I find there are a lot of people out there that enjoy a good scare; I know I'm one of them.

So why do we allow ourselves to get so caught up in our day-to-day routines? The reason is, we don't know how to escape from our own realities that we have created for ourselves. The solution: use an alternate reality that someone else as created for you. So break free from yourself and delve into the dark recesses of someone else's demented mind, and get scared.

This week's horror picks come straight from the master of macabre himself. He has been scaring people for more than 30 years now and most like will not stop 'til he is dead. I'm talking of none other than Stephen King himself.

King is one of the most commercially successful authors and a good deal of his books and short stories have been made into movies. So here's this weeks worth of his work that will terrify you -- check them out.

Carrie. Stephen King's first book and first movie, it sets the stage for the rest of King's career. Carrie is one of the few horror films to be nominated for Best Picture, and rightly so. Carrie White is a shy young girl with telekinetic powers who is ostracized by her peers and raised by a religiously fanatical and abusive mother. After an unexpected first period in the girl's locker room, her entire gym class teases her relentlessly until the teacher, Miss Collins, stops the mayhem. Because of their behavior toward Carrie, Miss Collins punishes the girls with go to detention or don't go to prom. One of the girls has her boyfriend, Tommy Ross, ask Carrie out to the prom while another girl, Chris Hargensen, makes plans to embarrass Carrie in front of the whole school. This movie is nothing short of brilliant.

The Shining. Stanley Kubrick directs Jack Nicholson and Shelly Duvall in this haunting tale about an author who gets a job working as a caretaker for a summer resort that has been closed for the winter months. During the course of the movie Nicholson, who plays Jack Torrance, gets writer's block and can't come up with anything to write. Meanwhile his son, Danny, starts seeing ghosts of past guests at the hotel. Slowly Jack starts going crazy, and becomes possessed by the idea that he has to "correct" his family. Jack snaps at this point and proceeds to try to kill his family. Jack Nicholson portrays one of his most iconic performances in this movie; it's evil and creepy and you'll love every minute.

Misery. This is a psychological thriller that will put you on the edge of your seat. Paul Sheldon has just finished his new novel in a remote hotel in Colorado. During a snowstorm, his car slides off the road, and the accident leaves him crippled. But luckily for him his "No. 1 fan," Annie Wilkes, had been stalking him and rescues him from the mangled vehicle. Annie takes him to her home and starts caring for his wounds. As the plot progresses, Annie drugs and keeps Paul as a prisoner, forcing him to write a new novel just for her. Kathy Bates is absolutely stunning as the unstable, holier-than-thou Annie Wilkes, and James Caan is equally as great as the crippled author, writing to save his life.

Silver Bullet. Based on Stephen King's illustrated novel, Cycle of the Werewolf. The story follows the recent murders of various folks in the town of Tarker's Mill. The townsfolk believe the murders to be done by a sadistic madman and proceed to take the law into their own hands. But it's not until a young paralyzed boy, Marty, has a run-in with and injures the werewolf that a handful of people start believing the possibility of the supernatural. The movie is starting to look a bit dated, but the story is engaging and there are a couple of good scares.

Pet Sematary. The Creed family has just moved into a new house that borders a road frequented by semi-trucks on one side and a small pet cemetery secluded in forested area on the other. One day the family cat is killed by a semi. The father, instead of telling the family about the mishap, takes the cat to a rumored Indian burial ground in hopes that the mystical power said to be present there will bring the cat back to life -- and it does. The cat comes back but soulless, and just wanders aimlessly around. It's not until Louis Creed's little boy is killed by a semi that things start getting out of hand. Louis exhumes his son's corpse and takes it to the Indian burial ground where his son returns to life. The soulless boy then starts to kill people. This movie is just creepy and weird, definitely worth the time it takes to watch.

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